The present invention relates to a golf cart system for installation on a golf course and, more particularly, to a golf cart system which enables a golf cart to run on the fairway of a golf course.
Heretofore several types of golf carts for carrying golfers or golf equipment have been known. These include, for example, three- and four-wheeled carts driven by a battery-powered electric motor or a small internal combustion engine. However, these carts are not suitable to be run on a golf course because their tires would come in direct contact with the grass and is likely to damage the grass. Accordingly, they have to be run on the rough or on a paved path running at the side of the rough. Recently there have been developed golf cart systems adapted to run on rails embedded in the ground of the golf course. The carts of this type do not damage the grass but, since such prior art golf cart systems use rails having a wide top surface exposed above the ground of the golf course, there is a risk that the rails will interfere with the golfers' game, as when a golf ball lands on the exposed rail surface. Thus the golf cart systems of the prior art using embedded rails also have to be installed at a place outside the rough.
When a golf cart is installed at a place outside the rough and far from the fairway, the players or their caddies have to walk back and forth between the fairway and the cart whenever they change golf clubs. This is not only troublesome for the players and caddies but also delays the progress of the game.
For solving this problem, the applicant of the present application previously developed a novel embedded-rail type golf cart system which can be installed on the fairway as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 33363/1986. This golf cart uses a track having a very narrow top surface exposed above the ground so that there is little chance of a golf ball hitting against the track even though the track is laid across the fairway.
However, since the golf cart disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 33363/1986 is constructed such that driving wheels running on a lower running surface of the track and anti-overturn wheels running on an upper running surface of the track are strongly urged by springs against the lower and upper running surfaces, a heavy load (not only the dead weight of the cart itself but also the reaction force of the springs) is always applied between the driving wheels and the lower running surface of the track. This causes an excessive frictional force therebetween and also wastefully increases the consumption of the battery power or the gasoline used for driving the cart and, as a result, the distance that the cart can travel per charge of the battery or per tank of gasoline is shortened.